COCONUT CREEK, Fla. — Coconut Creek police asked for the public’s help Wednesday in a decades-old murder investigation after identifying a woman who they say had been known only as “Jane Doe” for more than 40 years.
On Sept. 28, 1981, officers responded to the 6700 block of Lyons Road, where a woman was found dead in a canal.
Police said an autopsy determined she had been shot multiple times in the head. Investigators were unable to identify her at the time because she had no identification.
Last November, the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office discovered the victim’s original fingerprint card in its archives. The fingerprints were submitted to the National Crime Information Center database, where investigators received a match.
“So we had the fingerprints re-entered by the Broward Crime labs fingerprint unit and that’s where it was matched up to the victim in this case who had been arrested in 1981 in Miami,” said John Curcio, a homicide detective with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. “It led us to finding her family up in North Carolina.”
Police later identified the victim as Barbara Overby, who was 24 years old and lived in Fort Lauderdale at the time of her death.
Investigators said the family had not seen or heard from her in about 35 years and only recalled unconfirmed reports that she may have been living in Florida. The family provided two photographs of Overby, which police released on Wednesday.
“We know she was in Miami in 1981,” said Curcio. “We don’t know exactly why she was in Miami of who she came down from North Carolina with.”
“We’re hoping that people will remember who she is, maybe run into her in the early 80s, things like that, that might say, ‘oh, hey, I remember her,”' said Scotty Leamon, a spokesperson with the Coconut Creek Police Department.
Family members of Overby told Local 10’s Bridgette Matter that they plan to go where she was buried and hold a small ceremony for her in the spring.
Detectives are now hoping the renewed attention will generate new leads in the case. Anyone with information is urged to contact Coconut Creek police at 954-973-6700. The investigation remains ongoing.
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